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The last person Flynn expected to walk through the door to the bridge is Yuri Lowell. If you had asked him, he would have listed Yuri Lowell near the bottom of the list, along with James Kirk and Moses. And yet, there he is: standing there like he owns the place, red uniform with two pips on the collar, his hair (long, so much longer than the last time Flynn saw him), in a neat ponytail.
This isn't the Yuri Lowell he remembers at all. Yuri Lowell never wore his uniform right. Yuri Lowell never wanted to get promoted. Yuri Lowell wouldn't be on his ship.
He forgets to ask, for the longest time, what Yuri's doing here. Yuri is smiling at him, that little quirk of his lips that always spelled trouble, and the bridge crew are staring at Yuri.
"Hey, Flynn," Yuri finally breaks the silence with a little mock-salute.
It’s probably the salute that does it, in the end.
“Yuri,” he manages, and that’s about the only civil thing he can get out before saying, in a voice hanging onto control by a thread, “What are you doing on my bridge."
Yuri’s smile grows slightly before he pulls himself into at-attention stance, hands behind his back, “Lieutenant Lowell reporting for duty, Captain.”
Flynn blinks. Flicks a glance at his first officer, like that will solve anything, except of course Sodia just raises her brows at him and inclines her head toward Judith in a clear you need me to deal with this, you give the order. As good as it would feel to have Yuri escorted off the ship by security, he has a mystery to solve.
He looks back at Yuri, who’s still in perfect attention. This feels like a trap, somehow, or like some messed up Academy test, except he hasn’t been at the Academy in ten years and Yuri is still actually really standing there, reporting for duty, apparently, which–
“Right,” Flynn says, careful, and pushes himself up out of his chair. “Sodia, you have the conn. Lieutenant Lowell,” what a strange phrase in his mouth, “with me, please.”
Dutifully, like he’s actually following an order from Flynn’s mouth, Yuri follows him to his ready room. He drops into the chair across Flynn’s desk, any decorum falling out of his stance, and at least he looks a bit more like the Yuri Flynn remembers. “So, Captain. Congrats.”
“What the hell,” Flynn hisses from his spot by the door. “Reporting for duty? On my ship? Are you—if this is a joke, it's a bad one, Yuri. Explain yourself.”
“What? You really—“ Yuri looks back at him, lips parted, then he laughs, bright and loud. “Oh, you had no idea. Okay. Jeez. I thought you would’ve known, the transfer order went through a while ago.”
Embarrassment flushes Flynn sharp and fast. He shoves it down, hating the red in his ears, hating more that Yuri knows what it means, that he really does just feel amused about this whole thing. It’s radiating off him in waves, practically.
“You knew for a while,” he says, careful, slow. “Which means you must have known that we’ve been getting an unusual number of transfers to fill in, and which also means you had ample time to reach out.”
The amusement drops out of Yuri’s face and he sits up straighter. “I mean, yeah, sure. Not really protocol to contact the captain before you’re on the ship. I figured…” Yuri’s watching him with an odd expression on his face, and Flynn can feel the conflicted mix of feelings coming off of him. Yuri used to be good at shielding them, but it seems like he isn’t even trying right now.
Yuri pushes himself up, standing at attention again. “I figured you would contact me if you wanted to. I—apologize for presuming. If you want to change the order, the Vesperia is still docked for another day, right?”
He apologizes. For presuming. He’s standing at attention, watching Flynn, feeling a whole mess of things Flynn’s too keyed up to pick apart, and the entire bridge crew just watched Flynn freak out and yank him into the ready room.
Flynn swallows and skirts the desk to pick up his PADD.
It doesn’t take too long to find the list of transfer orders. Reviewing them was another task in the long list that Flynn hasn’t been able to keep up with, another thing hanging guiltily over his head. Shows him what neglecting work will do, he guesses. Yuri’s name is right near the beginning. One of the first to be approved, seemingly.
“Helmsman,” he reads softly, and looks up at Yuri, still standing there radiating uncertainty. “You’re a pilot now?”
Yuri nods shortly, his body relaxing again like he can only keep up standing properly for a short period of time. He never was good at that sort of thing. “Yeah, specialized in combat.”
Flynn looks back at the picture of him on the PADD. He looks just a little younger, his hair tied back like it is now, smiling very slightly. “You have quite the service record.”
“I’ve been around,” Yuri says vaguely, and there’s another tug of feeling there. Flynn swats it away like a fly.
“Clearly,” Flynn breathes. He flicks through Yuri’s record a bit more—merits here and there for excellent flying under pressure, official recognition for a way of configuring the controls, a couple marks on his record. There’s a lot that’s sealed, maybe just from general view. Flynn will have to pull it up later.
After a minute, he drops the PADD with a quiet sigh and looks back up at Yuri. “You’re on shift with me, it seems.”
Yuri watches him for a moment, then nods. “You’re—okay with this.”
No, Flynn thinks, but he pushes the thought away. He doesn’t have that luxury.
“We need a pilot,” he says instead, holding Yuri’s gaze. “A good one. Apparently, command thinks you’re the best fit. I’m not going to question that, and I’m going to assume that we can both be professional about it.”
“Yes,” Yuri replies, the hesitates, and Flynn can feel the confliction in him when he finally adds, “sir.”
Flynn bites down on an absurd and inappropriate smile. “A Lieutentant and still bad at that, huh.”
“Eh, I’ve gotten better,” Yuri jokes with another smile. “Just weird, since it’s you. Seriously, man. Congrats. Told you you’d make it.”
“I recall that you also told me I’d die of a heart attack before I hit thirty,” Flynn points out dryly.
“Can’t win ‘em all,” Yuri waves a hand vaguely.
Somehow, Flynn makes it through the shift. Yuri doesn’t start work until tomorrow, so he won’t have to deal with him until then, thankfully.
However, when the shift turns over, Judith and Karol, his security and comms officers, flank him as he exits the bridge. Flynn glances at them both with a sense of impending doom and mentally changes his plan from get dinner to deal with this.
“Captain, sir,” Karol pipes up with a bright smile. “Are you alright? You looked like you saw a ghost when the new helmsman came in!”
“Or something like one, anyway,” Judith tacks on. Flynn bites down on a groan.
“I’m alright.” It’s not technically a lie, although Flynn feels a pang of guilt letting it out of his mouth all the same. “It was… something of a surprise to see Lieutenant Lowell, but if I’d been keeping up with crew roster it wouldn’t have been nearly as shocking. That’s my error.”
“With all the, uh, turnover, it’s a lot to deal with,” Karol sympathizes, but his curiousity hasn’t been sated yet, and he’s looking at Flynn with bright eyes. “So you know him? Lieutenant Lowell?”
“Yes. I do,” which isn’t going to be enough, and Flynn knows that, of course he knows it, because Karol really can’t leave well enough alone. It’s what makes him so good on the comms. It’s also deeply inconvenient at this specific time. Flynn doesn’t even know how to define Yuri to himself.
“He comes highly recommended by Admiral Vox,” he tacks on, hoping to redirect Karol’s questions. “An excellent helmsman with a stellar service record and a… unique way of flying. He’ll be a very needed addition the crew, and I’m sure he’d be more than happy to share dramatic stories with you once he’s had a few days to settle in.” Dramatic heroics are usually enough to distract Karol, who was raised on stories about galactic battles of good versus evil and hasn’t really let that go.
“Oh, really? Cool!” Karol cheers. “That’s awesome!"
Judith isn’t so easily distracted, and he can feel her eyes on him. She is also, fortunately, subtle in her interest.
“It’ll be good to have new blood on the bridge.”
Coming from Judith, it sounds like a threat. Flynn’s obscurely grateful for it.
“We’ll have to make sure he feels welcome,” he says, despite really wanting to do the opposite and station him permanently to some data shuttle. The hallway branches up ahead.
Flynn seizes the opportunity granted him with all the force he can muster. He offers them both a smile he doesn’t quite feel, batting away the curiousity they’re both still directing at him, and slows. “Thank you for the company. I’ll see you both at the bridge meeting tomorrow morning—everything with Lieutenant Lowell made it clear I have some work to catch up on, so. Please enjoy dinner without me, and make sure you’re taking advantage of shore leave before we’re off again. Goodnight!”
It’s a little hasty, and probably way too transparent, given the suspicion radiating off them both, but Karol, at least, gives him a reluctant nod.
Flynn somehow didn’t think about the fact that with Yuri as a helmsman, he’ll be sitting in front of Flynn, in Flynn’s line of sight, all shift. The lights keep catching on Yuri’s hair, in a low braid today, the coils of hair shining against the black of his uniform. He keeps struggling to look away, and then the shine distracts him and he’s staring at the back of Yuri’s head again.
At least today they get to leave dock. Even though that means that Yuri Lowell will be flying Flynn’s ship, and he’s not sure how much he likes that. He remembers how Yuri flew shuttles in the Academy.
“I never crashed!” Yuri would always tell him, as if that’s the metric for a good flight.
Now, the dock arms release from the Vesperia, and Yuri gets the ship ready to leave the station.
“Ready, Captain,” he says, and it’s strange to hear Yuri call him that, even if he’s sort of gotten used to it from everyone else in the last few months. The shift from Commander to Captain is one thing. The shift from a long-ago, half-purred Flynn to Captain in that same low voice is another realm entirely.
Focus, Flynn tells himself as Yuri twists to look expectantly over his shoulder.
“Don’t break my ship, Lieutenant,” he says, entirely too aware of those dark eyes on him. “You may proceed.”
Yuri’s brows raise and he looks like he’s going to comment on that, but he seems to have learned some sense of decorum because he only snorts quietly and turns back to the helm. “No promises, sir.”
The ship starts to move, leaving the station faster than is necessary or safe. They’re pushed back in their seats, and the officers standing lurch. Flynn can feel the somewhat manic energy coming from Yuri as his fingers drag on the controls, taking the ship into warp.
“Lieutenant,” he snaps, as the ship snaps away into hyperspace, “I didn’t think it was necessary to remind you to also not break my bridge crew.”
“Sorry, Captain. New ship, y’know, we gotta learn each other,” Yuri says, as if this is something perfectly normal to do and to say. Sodia is looking at Flynn with fire in her eyes, which can’t be a good thing.
“You’ve flown other Constitution-class ships,” Flynn says slowly. “Consider learning the Vesperia more quickly, if the learning curve is that high.”
Frustration mixed with fond amusement bubble up from Yuri, and his braid sways at his back. “Sure thing, Captain. I’ll rush getting to know her for you.”
“That’s not—“ Flynn starts, and then cuts himself off with a groan. “Nevermind. Just hold us steady at warp 2, please—and stay at warp 2," he has to add, because he remembers Yuri in the flight simulators, too, always pushing a little faster than he needed to.
“I don’t know, Captain,” one of his other officers pipes up from their station. Flynn’s getting waves of amusement from the whole bridge crew, now that he really pays attention. “Nothing like starting a new mission with a little punch."
“Yeah,” Karol twists in his chair, too, a bright grin on his face. “It’s great! Aren’t you excited, Captain? We’re repaired, we have those new scanners—oh, Lieutenant Lowell, those are up by you, actually, did I show them to you yet? They’re state of the art!”
“Oh, yeah? Show me,” Yuri grins back at Karol, who excitedly hops up from his chair.
Sodia meets Flynn’s eyes, and seems to take something from his desperation. “Lieutenant Capel, sit down. You can show Lieutenant Lowell the scanners once we’re at our destination. Do I need to remind you that this is the bridge?”
Karol freezes where he is, eyes wide. “N-no, Commander. Right! When we’re there. Great, yep.”
He drops back into his seat with a little squeak, and Yuri is still watching him. “Yeah, show me later. Sounds pretty cool."
“It’s very cool,” Karol says in a small voice. His emotions are a messy sea, rolling everywhere, spilling into the surrounding stations.
Flynn’s going to have to talk with Sodia about her tone. An orderly bridge is nice, but they really should be starting out with a sense of excitement, at the very least.
He lets things settle for a moment and then says, quietly, “It will be nice to be back in the stars. Perhaps a little less eventfully, this time.”
“It’s a routine mission. We shouldn’t see any,” Sodia reminds him, her voice much softer now.
“Supply missions never go wrong,” Judith says from behind him with that amused tone of hers.
Unfortunately, her sarcasm proves right. Flynn really should have known. Statistically, it's probably only about 15% of spatial anomalies mess with starship systems. Anecdotally, it feels somewhere closer to 75%, and given Flynn's track record so far, probably closer to 90%.
So of course there is one in the middle of their supply route, and of course it’s novel and so the science crew wants to scan it, and of course doing so cuts most power to the entire ship and wakes up some kind of—
“Karol,” Flynn calls sharply into the darkness of the bridge, once they’ve gotten at least the bridge back online, “do you have any idea what that thing is? Visuals alone?”
“Visuals, and the scanners—Lieutenant Lowell, can you pull them up?” Karol asks, his voice a high squeak.
“Sure would’ve been nice to get that crash course,” Yuri mutters, but he manages to pull them up, and Karol hops over to the helm, fiddling with the controls. A giant, strange anomaly comes up on the screen, and it seems to be covering most of the ship. “Shit. That doesn’t look good.”
“Oh, no, no, no not good at all,” Karol breathes, and fear radiates from him.
“Karol,” Flynn says again, softer. “Do you know?”
“Whatever it is, it’s—eating the ship!” Karol cries out, and Yuri takes the controls back with a quiet word of thanks.
“I’m gonna get us out of here,” Yuri says, then pauses, glancing back at Flynn, “alright, Captain?”
“Do it,” Flynn says, or tries to, because at that moment the whole ship rumbles, and more warning lights flare to life, shrieking mostly about hull integrity. Power flickers again. “Go! Whatever you have to do!”
It seems to be what Yuri wanted, because excitement surges through him and his hands are on the controls, the ship lurching in the hold of whatever this creature is. “I’d recommend a red alert for what I’m about to do, Flynn!”
“Yuri—“ Flynn starts, but Yuri’s already shoving the ship forward, so he snaps out a command to the computer, just enough to make the alert blare where they still have power.
The next few minutes are some of the wildest of his life, which is saying something after the year he’s had. Yuri seems to be wrestling with the creature, using the ship’s mass against it, using motion and thrust to put pressure on the creature only to back off. He fights with the creature, the ship shaking and slamming into it (the shields are waning, the creature seemingly siphoning the power from them, Judith report calmly), and, miraculously, Yuri manages to wrestle them free. He’s intensely focused, and yet still manages to shout quips and reports of what he’s doing to the crew, and suddenly the shaking stops, but Yuri doesn’t, gunning the ship with a shout of, “put that power back into the shields!”
“Do it,” Flynn says sharply when she looks to him. He has no idea what Yuri’s planning but he knows that tone, even if he’s probably going to regret it later.
“Captain,” Sodia starts, but now isn’t the time, and Yuri is already gunning the thrusters, the ship flitting away from the creature, which gets one last grab at the Vesperia before Yuri takes them to warp. He lets out a whoop before dropping back into this seat, spinning around in it with a grin.
“Now that’s what I call a first day!”
Turns out adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
Apparently Yuri’s console had exploded a little at some point in there, and he’d been too caught in outmaneuvering that thing to notice until a white-faced and tight-lipped Flynn had ordered him to medical.
“And you didn’t notice this,” the nurse on duty says, tilting her head slowly as she drags her regenerator over Yuri’s thighs. Her hair is pink, and her eyes are a little bigger than a human’s would be, but Yuri’s never met someone like her. “At all?”
“Nah, I was too focused. It doesn’t really hurt,” he says, and then winces as she moves the device over some of his singed skin. “Lotsa stuff was happening.”
“I felt it, down here, but it’s hard to know what’s going on,” the nurse says, sounding almost wistful. “It must be so exciting to be up there on the bridge!”
“It’s pretty cool,” Yuri agrees with a grin. “You ever think about taking a shift up there?”
“Yes, but, well,” she lifts her head, offering a bright smile right back, “I’m really needed, down here—we’re very short-staffed, and I owe Flynn so much for letting me stay at all, considering.”
“Considering..?” Yuri glances up at her. Curious about her, yes, but also about Flynn, what he’s been doing, the man he’s become after so long apart.
“Um, well,” the nurse looks a bit sheepish as she reaches over to pull his other leg closer, “actually, I’m sort of—training for Starfleet while being stationed here? There was a… situation, and I snuck onto the ship, and really Flynn—Captain Scifo—he shouldn’t have let me stay, but he did need the help, and… now I’m learning on the job. Oh! But I’ve been working in healing for a long time, so you don’t have to worry. I know what I’m doing.”
“I’m sure you do,” he grimaces as she starts on the other leg. He needs to replicate new uniform pants after this. “That, huh. That sounds like Flynn. That’s cool, so you’re gonna train here, then take the exams?”
“Yes! It will be a lot of work, of course, but, well,” she looks up again, her eyes bright. “It’s a starship. I’m in the stars. Anything is worth that, and the things this ship gets to do—it’s amazing! Oh,” another pass with the regenerator, this one slightly less awful, “do you know the captain? I haven’t seen you before.”
“Yeah, that’s the best part,” he agrees quietly, letting his eyes fall shut. At least it doesn’t hurt so much anymore. After he became aware that he was hurt, the burns ached something awful. “Uh, yeah. We went to the Academy together. Long time ago, though. Haven’t seen him in ages.”
“So you are new!” The nurse says, sounding excited. “I knew it. Your energy is very different. It must be strange to be under the command of someone you went to school with. Or, is that normal, in Starfleet?”
“It is pretty weird,” Yuri laughs softly, shifting uncomfortably as she does another pass on his thighs. “But I always thought he’d make it. He’s got command written all over him. So, yeah, uh… energy?”
“Oh,” she laughs again, softer this time. “Sorry. I forget, because the captain can sense it, too, although it seems to work very differently for him. Your energy is very bright. It’s sort of like… I can tell that you haven’t quite settled in yet, because you don’t match the rest of the ship.”
“What, so I serve here long enough and I get assimilated?” Yuri shudders, and finally she lets up with the regenerator. The skin of his thighs is pink and new, but it’s healed at least, and should settle in a few days. “Thanks, uh, what was your name?”
“Estellise,” says the nurse through a bright smile. She leans back, though she’s still quite close, like maybe she has a different idea about personal space than Yuri does. “I have to say that I hope I don’t see you again very soon. At least, not here.”
“What, I’m that bad of a patient?” Yuri hops off the table, taking the tattered rags of his pants with him. “Good to meet you, Estell…ise, right? I’m Yuri Lowell.”
Estellise makes a shocked little sound and hops up after him. “No! It would be horrible of me to say I hope to see you soon when you’re only going to come down here if you got hurt! You weren’t a bad patient at all!”
Yuri waves a hand at her, “I’m messing with you. Yeah, I’m on alpha shift, so maybe I’ll see you around the mess. Uh—is there a replicator in here?” He holds up the tattered pants, making Estellise laugh.
He does, in fact, see her at the mess later. He sees her, and Lieutenant Karol, and the woman who turns out to be chief of security. Actually, everybody seems to be here except Flynn, and Karol waves him over to come and sit with them, which is nice.
“What, our shift together wasn’t enough for you?” Yuri teases, dropping down next to Karol.
“Oh, if you want to eat alone, you totally can! I just thought—“ Karol starts, but Yuri nudges him.
“Nah, I’m messing with you. Thanks for the save earlier, boss.”
Karol blinks. “We’re the same rank.”
“Sure,” Yuri says, like that’s at all helpful here. Karol looks confused, but also sort of thrilled by it.
“Lowell—Yuri? Can I call you Yuri?” The security officer leans in, and there’s something that’s just generally seductive about her, like every word she’s saying could be an invitation to something more. He feels his face heat up, just a little.
“Yeah, sure. Yuri’s good. I’m bad at the whole rank thing,” he says it off-handedly, digging into his food (the replicators on this ship are newer than his last one, and the food tastes just that much better).
“Yuri, I couldn’t help but notice that you knew the captain.”
“Oh! Yuri told me that they went to the Academy together,” Estellise pipes up brightly.
“Well, that’s very sweet, to serve with your old friend again,” the chief of security says, and Yuri, again, can’t help but thing she means something more by it.
“I, yeah. It’s good to see him again. We haven’t seen each other in a really long time."
“What a shame. You seemed to ruffle some of the Captain’s carefully smoothed feathers. I hope that you can keep doing that.”
Yuri blinks, glancing up at her. She just smiles placidly at him.
“Judith, the Captain has enough to worry about already,” Karol says, glancing between them.
“It’s good for him,” Judith says with that same unmovable smile. “It’s good for all of us. Impressive flying today, Lieutenant.”
“Thanks,” Yuri chances a smile back, and Judith looks pleased.
“I really wish we could go one mission without an existential threat,” Estellise sighs softly into her unfamiliar meal. Yuri wonders what her species is, that she’s eating what looks like roots.
“I dunno, that’s kind of why I’m here. Routine missions are boring,” Yuri tells them.
“You say that now,” Karol mutters darkly, “just wait until it’s been two months with no breaks.”
Estellise peers at him over her roots. “That’s why you’re here, Yuri?”
“Yeah. For shit like today. You don’t get that on just any ship. You gotta be on one like this, that’s going out there, looking for stuff we’ve never seen before, taking risks. I wanted a ship like this, and finally nabbed one. Uh, sorry, about your last helmsperson,” he adds onto the end with a grimace. From what he heard, that person died protecting the ship.
“They knew what the risks were,” Judith says quietly. It seems callous, sort of, except that they all nod around her. “We all do. Maybe a little too much,” she punctuates that with a brighter smile, bordering on a grin. “That’s why I think you’ll be good for us. This ship needs a little levity.”
“Speaking of,” Karol leans around Estellise’s arm, “Yuri, is it really true you broke a flight record while you were still at the Academy? On accident?”
“Ah, man, the rumors are proceeding me? Yeah, it’s true,” he leans in with a wicked grin on his face. Maybe he shouldn’t, but, “and the best part? Flynn was in that shuttle with me.”
Karol’s eyes go round. “The captain? Really? But— I heard you stole it!”
“Yep. I stole it, he tried to stop me, I took the ship and flew it like a bat outta hell. Flynn was screaming the whole time.”
“It wasn’t the whole time.”
The whole table freezes and looks up to find Flynn standing right behind Yuri. Yuri looks back at him, hooking his arm on the back of his chair.
“Hey, Captain,” he grins toothily up at Flynn. He hates how good Flynn looks in a Captain’s uniform, even if he also looks thin and tired and stressed. “It was most of the time.”
“Half,” Flynn says, terse. “Half the time. And he did get caught, and made to return the shuttle, and then he had to clean out the bays for a month, but he never tells people that part of the story.”
Karol laughs, “and you broke the record? Wow, that’s worth cleaning out the bays!"
“Yeah it totally was,” Yuri grins brightly, and doesn’t mention the little detail that he stole the ship to try and impress Flynn. That he planned to have sex in space. That didn’t work out, but, hell, he’s done it since, so.
“Were you punished, Captain?” Estellise asks, her mouth agape.
“I was.” Yuri had tried to take full responsibility, but Flynn and his stupid noble sense of ethics and responsibility had gotten in his own way. “I was on the stolen shuttle as well, after all. Yuri, are you alright?”
“Yeah, peachy. Estellise here is good at what she does,” Yuri leans back to grab a chair from the table next to theirs and drags it over. “Sit down, Captain. I don’t like you hovering over me.”
“Oh,” Flynn starts to protest, but Karol and Estellise look up at him at the same time, and evidently that’s enough. He casts a desperate sort of glance back over his shoulder, looks back at the two of them, and then folds himself awkwardly into the chair beside Yuri. “Thank you. I don’t mean to interrupt your meal. I just wanted to make sure everyone was alright.”
“We’re good, right?” Yuri glances at the others, who all nod: Estellise and Karol vigorously, and Judith sedately. “You need to eat too. You’re not still stress starving yourself, are you?”
Flynn’s lips part, silent, which is as clear a yes, obviously I am as any as far as Yuri’s concerned, except he says a second later, “I'm quite sure you lost the right to be concerned about that," with enough acid in his voice to make every officer stare at him, Yuri included.
He appraises Flynn, something twisting in his gut. Flynn’s not wrong. Whatever they were a decade ago doesn’t matter now. He nods, waving a hand, “guess that’s right. Still, though, the food here’s good. Didn’t realize my last ship’s replicators were such shit.”
“Welcome to the Vesperia," Flynn says shortly, and shoves himself up with a scrape of metal on metal. “I'm sure you'll find a great many differences, and I'm sure they're all fascinating. If you'll all excuse me. Lieutenant, Commander, Estellise,” he nods to each of them, stops at Yuri for a half-second with unreadable blue eyes—so strange considering his heritage, always enough to mark him as different—before whirling neatly on his heel and beating what definitely looks like a tactical retreat through the mess, leaving a ringing silence in his wake.
When Yuri turns back to the table, three sets of eyes are on him. He stares back at them for a second before he mutters a curse and gets to his feet, following Flynn out of the mess.
It’s not hard to catch up with him, considering the wake of confused and staring ensigns he leaves in the halls. Probably not the best first impression. He thought it would be fine and easy to be around Flynn again, and now, in retrospect, he isn’t quite sure why he thought that.
Thankfully for him, Flynn has to wait for the turbolift. Yuri stops next to him, not quite looking at him.
“Hey.”
Flynn doesn’t say a word. Even Yuri can feel the turmoil rolling off him, even under all his vaunted control. The lift slides smoothly open. Flynn makes a choppy gesture for Yuri to go first. Yuri has a distinct feeling that if he does, Flynn will turn the other way. Which, to be fair, is his right.
Either way, Yuri steps in, leaving it up to Flynn.
Surprisingly, Flynn follows.
The doors slide shut. Neither of them say anything for a long, quiet moment.
Then, finally, Flynn huffs out a frustrated breath. “Academy stories, Yuri? Really?”
“Karol asked,” Yuri says, not to defend himself, exactly—but not to not defend himself, either. “Didn’t know people still told those stories.”
Flynn still isn’t looking at him. “Of course they do. No one’s managed to break that record.”
Yuri stares at the door of the lift. It’s still going. He doesn’t remember what floor Flynn asked for. “Yeah, well. Still. I guess I owe you another apology. Two for two.”
“You,” Flynn starts, but the lift starts to slow, and he lets out an explosive breath, ducking his head. “Come with me. We’ll talk in my quarters.”
“Sure,” is all Yuri says, following a step behind him as he walks down the long halls of the ship.
He looks different. The same, sort of, but it’s been ten years. He’s older, broader, his hair is different, the blonde darker with peppering of gray. But he’s still Flynn, and Yuri didn’t quite realize how much he missed Flynn until Flynn is right here in front of him.
He gestures Yuri into his quarters, too, standing back to let him enter first.
Yuri could probably have predicted the way they look.
Neat to a fault, full of books, spotless except for a book left splayed open on a too-clean desk. One full wall projects the stars outside, drifting slowly past.
The doors slide shut behind Flynn with a soft, comfortable click, muffling the hum of the ship’s systems.
“I don’t want an apology for today,” Flynn says into the silence. He skirts around Yuri, heading for another little table in the corner.
“I stepped over a line. I’ll own that,” Yuri says, standing near the door. He’s not sure if he should presume—the problem is he’s already presumed too much.
“You didn’t,” Flynn’s back is tense, his shoulders drawn. “I just— do you still like red tea?”
“…yeah.” Flynn remembers. It softens him a little, and he slowly walks further into Flynn’s quarters, looking around. There are some familiar trinkets, but most everything is new, different, things Flynn must have acquired in the last decade.
Something clinks behind him. Water rushes, and Flynn murmurs something softly, apparently to himself. Red tea always makes the air around smell like you’re standing in the middle of a spice garden. It softens the edges of Flynn’s quarters, too.
His fingers brush a pretty purple rock.
“A present,” Flynn’s voice is closer now. “We didn’t end up being able to help at all, but… they were grateful all the same. My captain at the time was furious with me for breaking protocol to try.”
Yuri’s lips flicker in a smile, glancing up at Flynn. It’s strange, being alone with him again. “Flynn Scifo, breaking protocol? Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Yes, well.” Flynn’s mouth twists, like he’s fighting off some expression. “A lot has changed.”
“Yeah, sure has,” Yuri says softly.
He didn’t expect to still want Flynn. In retrospect, that was pretty dumb to assume. Flynn is close to him, and he still smells good and he still has that determination in his eyes, that focus that Yuri always loved when it was turned on him.
He shifts a little closer without thinking about it, feeling the heat of Flynn’s body in the air between them.
Flynn sucks in a tiny, sharp breath. His eyes drop to Yuri’s mouth, lift again a half-second later.
“Yuri,” he starts, and then something pings behind him and he practically flees over to what Yuri can tell now is a little tea station. “Sit anywhere you like. We…. need to talk.”
Yuri wavers there, his breath sitting strange in his lungs.
It takes a moment, but he manages to move his body, sitting in one of the armchairs that scatter the room. He feels strange in his own skin, and instead focuses on Flynn making the tea, moving through familiar motions.
“Yeah, sure. We can talk.”
Flynn presents him with a cup too delicate to be on a starship, a flimsy little thing in Yuri’s hand full of steaming tea.
It’s almost familiar, on the edge of an old comfortable ritual of theirs. With all Flynn’s academy electives, he’d had to steal time for himself, usually in the middle of the night when Yuri was awake anyway. They’d curl up together in the same shitty armchair in Flynn’s apartment, piled together with tea, and stare out at the stars.
Now, Flynn sinks down onto the chair beside Yuri with his legs and a cup of tea like a barrier between them, his eyes dark.
“Okay,” he says after a moment, soft, like he’s steeling himself. “Why are you here?”
“Uh…” Yuri stares at him blankly for a moment. “You asked me to come here?”
Flynn huffs. Steam curls away from his lips. “You know what I mean. Here, on this ship. And not—I know you were transferred, and we need your skills, so before you ask whether this means I want you gone, I don’t. I just… don’t understand.”
“So, why’d I accept the transfer?" Yuri sits back in the chair with a soft sound. He knew Flynn would ask this eventually. “The Vesperia is the only ship doing the kind of stuff it does. That’s the kind of stuff I want to be doing. I’m not gonna pass an opportunity like that because of—history.”
“History,” Flynn repeats over the rim of his cup. “That’s how you see it?”
It feels like a test. Yuri meets his eyes, quiet for a long moment before answering: “what else is it? What was between us happened a decade ago. I’m not going to let what happened then stop me from doing my job the best I can.”
Flynn’s eyes dart away. “No. Of course not. So you wanted to be on this ship because of… what we’re doing. Your last posting was a better one, objectively. What was it missing?”
Yuri’s lips flicker in a smile. “It was boring. This ship, from what I’ve heard, is anything but boring, and look at how that first day was? I’d take that over diplomacy any day.”
Flynn sits up a little straighter in his chair. “You had to go to medical. You want that, every day?”
“Well, yeah,” Yuri watches him evenly. He tries to keep his feelings in check, but it’s always been hard around Flynn. Flynn riles him up, but Flynn can also read him like a book. He smooth over them in a way he hasn’t in a long time. “I need a little excitement.”
“You’ll certainly get it,” Flynn murmurs, staring back. “I just—Yuri, the last I heard, you were… weeks from quitting. I guess I simply let my surprise get away from me. I never expected to see you walking onto the bridge.”
“I thought I’d give it another try,” Yuri shrugs, and sets the tea aside. “Have a little sanctioned thrill before I turn into, what, a trader pilot or something.”
Flynn’s brows rise. “That’s your backup plan?”
“Eh, it’s an idea,” Yuri waves a hand vaguely. “Hadn’t quite figured it out yet.”
“No,” Flynn settles back into his chair with a huff. “Of course you hadn’t. So, you’re here until it’s not thrilling anymore. Is that it?”
“That’s one way to put it,” it doesn’t feel quite right, but he also is pretty sure he doesn’t owe Flynn anything. They haven’t talked in a decade. Barely crossed paths, and when they did, there was awkward silence or formal hellos.
Maybe he did make a mistake. But it’s one last chance, one last hurrah, before he leaves Starfleet, before he moves on to whatever else he can do in this messed up galaxy. “So, Captain, you got more thrills for me?”
Flynn’s eyes flash.
A familiar little something jolts down Yuri’s spine. Flynn looked at him like that, usually, when he was about to start a fight that they both wanted to win, or when he had a Yuri-level probably-stupid idea.
“Almost certainly,” he says, deceptively soft. “Probably more than you signed up for.”
“I’m counting on it,” Yuri finally lifts his cup, toasting Flynn with it.